Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Dec. 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. retailers may lose almost $9 billion in holiday sales as banks rein in lending to cash-strapped consumers before a new credit-card law takes effect. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act, which goes into effect in February, bans the practice of raising interest rates based on a missed payment with another lender. Bloomberg's Monica Bertran reports. (Source: Bloomberg)

Sunday, November 22, 2009

A Seattle, Washington, woman trying to refinance her mortgage got the shock of her life when she learned her credit report listed her as deceased. The news came after she had battled cancer and then learned she needed open-heart surgery. (Nov. 22)

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

There are reasons which make credit card interest rates so high. High credit card interest rates make having this kind of debt a bad idea especially if it compounds very quickly after we bought things that quickly lose their value.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Aug. 19 (Bloomberg) -- Americans with the best credit may be hurt the most as the first phase of a credit card reform law takes effect tomorrow, said Schwark Satyavolu, founder of a card-comparison Web site.

Lenders are raising rates across the board, according to Satyavolu, president and co-founder of BillShrink.com, which compares terms offered to consumers for credit cards, mobile phones and gasoline. The company says the average lowest card rate is about 11.25 percent, up from 8.85 percent in January. The average for less credit-worthy customers rose to 15.75 percent in July, from 13.75 percent in January.

“Banks are setting the bar high enough so they’ll only go down from here,” Satyavolu said.

The law gives cardholders some of the tools Congress promised to exercise more control over their accounts. They’ll have 45 days to reject proposed rate increases and they’ll have the option of paying off their existing balances at the current rates over a period of at least five years. Companies will have to mail bills 21 days before the due date, up from 14 days.

Mobile phone carriers said the intriguing possibility is near at hand. Ideally, wireless users will be able to pay phone bills, taxes, shopping expenses, transport fees and hospital bills with their handsets. This would make plastic cards or paper money almost obsolete.

SK Telecom and KT said users of data-enabled, third-generation (3G) handsets are now capable of doing a limited range of financial services with microchips inserted into the phones.

SK Telecom has more than 10 million users with handsets that are embedded with universal subscriber identity module (USIM) chips, or smart cards that contain user information and process data.

``The very goal of inserting USIM cards was to enable financial services, and credit card capabilities are the last frontier,'' said an industry watcher.

``Currently, mobile operators are merely the middlemen connecting consumers with conventional financial service firms, but they are exploring the possibilities of establishing their own financial service units.''

Telecommunications operators have high hopes for the Lee Myung-bak government's efforts to ease the cross-ownership restrictions between financial and non-financial services.

The National Assembly is currently reviewing the possibility of allowing non-financial companies to own financial units, such as credit card and securities firms.

Should the restrictions be lifted, SK Telecom is moving to acquire Hana Card.

Legal issues aren't the only obstacles to the mobile wallet. An SK Telecom executive said that the conventional ``combi-type'' USIM cards, which can store data up to 144 kilobytes, wouldn't be powerful enough to support the expanding range of transactions services.

And unlike plastic credit cards, which users can take with them all over the world, geography still matters in mobile payment.

A new technology called near field communications (NFC) could provide a solution to both of the problems.

NFC is similar to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and is considered crucial for the mobile wallet as the chips inside the phones store personal information and act as credit cards.

If NFC is adopted as a global standard, users will eventually be able to take their handsets abroad and pay for hotel rooms and souvenirs.

KT, the country's biggest telephone company and No. 2 wireless carrier, plans to release an NFC-enabled USIM chip with 256 kilobyte storage early next year and also develop a 1-gigabyte USIM. SK Telecom is also developing NFC-based USIM chips.Source :

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

In Australia the average credit card debt is likely to be more than $3200 , The typical family credit card debt is likely to be much higher , some are using credit cards to make mortgage payments , the Credit Crisis in Australia. It follows Laura, a 22 old young lady who has $20,000 debt and explores how she got into debt and gives sound financial advice about how to get out of debt.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

President Obama is expected to unveil a new government agency Wednesday that will watch over financial products offered to consumers such as Credit Cards , Mortgages ...consumer product safety commission ...the last bust in the economy was partially caused by the fact that many people took on mortgages that they could never pay in a million years and they were taking on loans on credit cards that had 25% or 30% interest rates , people should be more responsible but financial companies should be more responsible too , and that's what's this watch dog agency is all aboutEmbedded video from CNNMoney.com Video

Monday, June 15, 2009

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. credit card defaults rose to record highs in May, with a steep deterioration of Bank of America Corp's lending portfolio, in another sign that consumers remain under severe stress.

Delinquency rates -- an indicator of future credit losses -- fell across the industry, but analysts said the decline was due to a seasonal trend, as consumers used tax refunds to pay back debts, and they expect delinquencies to go up again in coming months.

"I find it hard to believe that it is really a trend. You need to see stabilization in unemployment before you see anything else," said Chris Brendler, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. "It is too early to see some kind of improvement."

Bank of America Corp -- the largest U.S. bank -- said its default rate, those loans the company does not expect to be paid back, soared to 12.50 percent in May from 10.47 percent in April.

The bank is paying the price of expanding rapidly in recent years and of holding one of the highest concentrations of subprime borrowers among the top card issuers, analysts said.

In addition, American Express Co , which accounts for nearly a quarter of credit and charge card sales volume in the United States, said its default rate rose to 10.4 percent from 9.90, according to a regulatory filing based on the performance of credit card loans that were securitized.

Visa Europe Ltd., operator of the largest payment-card network in the 27-nation European Union, faces a formal antitrust complaint from EuroCommerce, a group representing retailers.

A transaction fee paid by retailers, which is set by Visa and its member banks, breaks EU antitrust rules, EuroCommerce, whose members include Carrefour SA and Tesco Plc, said in an e- mailed statement today. The so-called interchange fee is paid by the retailer’s bank to the bank that issued the customer’s card.

“The Visa interchange fee procedure is completely unfair,” said Xavier Durieu, secretary general of EuroCommerce, in the statement. “Retailers are forced to pay for a range of services from which they do not benefit. Bank rates are the only services which retailers, even the largest ones, are not able to negotiate.”

Thursday, June 11, 2009

struggling about Mortgage and credit cards debt , get some help , money management , debt consolidations , Americans have 1 trillion in credit cards debt ...A warning about living under a house of credit cards, with John Ulzheimer Credit.com consumer education president, and CNBC's Carmen Wong Ulrich.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Credit Karma Inc., the Web site that offers free credit scores and financial advice to U.S. consumers, is adding a tool today to help users understand the components behind their credit reports.

The free service requires users to register and give personal information such as their Social Security number and date of birth. Users of the “Credit Report Card” will be able to see how their total debt, payment history and other factors may affect their scores.

“Ninety-five percent of consumers don’t know any of these relationships and how they work in regards to a credit report,” said Ken Lin, the chief executive officer and founder of San Francisco-based Credit Karma, in an interview. “If you’ve ever looked at a credit report you’ve got 8 to 12 pages of data that doesn’t correlate to a credit score.”

student loandebt and interest rates are a burden on student shoulders, how can you start your life with a 100K debt ! defaulting becomes the rule not the exception...diplomas do not come cheap , more and more students need a lending hand , banks , foreclosed home or repossessed car become the norm , loans investing intelligence are a complicated formula especially in a failing economy ,Graduates are leaving college with a mountain of debt, especially in these turbulent times , with no jobs perspectives and with an unemployment rate at about 8% according to official stats

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Americans ownb 950 billion dollars in credit cards debt last year according to the Federal Reserve , we own even more this year and credit cards default are expected to go up ten percent this year...so how should you cope with the bills in this hard economy without killing your credit rating? it can be hard to decid which bill to pay first , credit adviser have some great advices on how to stay afloat without killing your credit : if you are drowning in debt living check to check , you have a big debt to credit cards companies and you do not know which bills to pay first , your utilities bills cable bill phone bill ? credit counsellors say , you should not pay your credit card first , your number one priority is to pay your mortgage or rent ,even if the credit cards company keep calling , your second priority are Utilities because getting disconnected will cost you more money on the long run , because utilities companies often hit you with penalties pricy deposits and connection fees when they restore your service , Your Third priority is to make your car payment especially if that's how you get to work , but never ignore your credit cards creditors and especially do not make empty promises , try to workout an arrangement but remember do not ever give your creditors your bank account information , they will be more than happy to empty it ...you need decipline in order to rebuild your credit

In the U.S., every one has a social security number (SSN). This SSN will follow you for your entire life. If you screwed up something, it will be reported to the HOGAN system. This system is so powerful that all the info about a person's debt, credit card number, bank accounts, etc can be inquired from it once a SSN is entered. One thing I need to mention here is the credit card late payment issue. If you have only just one late payment (<90>90 days) made his credit score drop from 708 to 604 in a month. When he found this big mistake he made, he paid his credit card debt immediately. But it still takes a while for him to restore his credit score. Actually, the people paying all his credit card debts every month will not get the high credit score. You credit score will be better if you just pay the minimum payment every month. Because you will need to pay for the interests if you choose to pay the minimum payment of your credit card bills. This is the way the banks and credit card companies like most. It is like a debt which takes forever for the credit card holder. But lots of American people like to pay the credit card bills this way. :-)

About the credit check and credit inquiry: I don't recommend people to apply for too many credit cards in a short period of time. Because you will get a hard credit inquiry every time you apply for a new credit card. You credit score will be affected if you have too many credit inquiries. In the U.S., every one can get a free annual credit report (with no credit score in it) and the web site is: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp (The CreditReport.comAnnualCreditReport.com website is only accessible through ISPs (Internet Service Providers) located within the United States and its territories.) You can check this web site if you are interested. If you have the question like "whats my credit score?", you can use the free trial from CreditReport Dot COM or MyFICO Dot COM. From CreditReport Dot COM, you can get a 7 day free trail of 3 bureau credit monitoring and credit score tracking. For the MyFICO Dot COM, you can get your free FICO score and credit report, 2 free Equifax FICO scores and credit reports, 90% of the largest U.S. banks use FICO scores. (Score Watch 30-Day Free Trial)

Credit score and financial crisis: I think a very important reason of this financial crisis is the banks' not caring too much about the applicants' credit score. Because of this, the people with very low credit score can still get their housing loans. Even the people who has bankruptcy records in his/her credit report can still get his/her house mortgage. Sometimes they can get the 0% down payment too. This is too risky for the banks. When the housing price drops, these people will not be able to pay their housing loans and the banks will be affected too. Now the banks require the applicants to have a credit score of at least 700 when applying for the housing loans. They also prefer the applicants with a clear credit history. Although the housing price dropped and lots of people think this is a good time to buy houses, to get the house mortgage from the banks is another story now.

Credit score and microfinance: I once had a intern in Grameen Foundation and my work is about the loan applications from Get $50 Cash Back from Discover!the poor people. In the U.S., the poor people will not get a very good credit score. (or don't have any credit score) Because of this, the banks do not want to lend them money. All they can ask is the microfinance organizations. I saw lots poor people, they really need money from the banks. But they are not able to get loans from them because of their bad credit score and credit report. The good thing about this microfinance is that they will not consider things like credit score or credit report at all. It cares more about the applicants' personality. If the applicant is poor but he/she is honest and confident about his/her future, he/she can still get loans from these microfinance organizations. In my point of view, this is not just about money. This is about giving hopes and chances to the poor people. Although it is not smart to lend money to the poor people with band credit score in most American people's mind, the poor people still need a chance to pursuing better lives in the realistic capitalism system.

Visa Master Card Pre-Paid Credit Popularity on the Rise no credit check no credit history needed , bad credit no credit , but watch out for any hidden fees and charges and read the fine print for all set of rules coming with the card...

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

With the economy in a downward spiral, more and more people are taking advantage of credit card offers to make ends meet, but are the credit card companies actually taking advantage of their customers? In the week in which federal regulators adopted sweeping new rules for the credit card industry, NOW meets families struggling to pay off their credit card debt. Such debt has become significantly larger thanks to questionable industry practices like doubling and tripling interest rates, increasing fees and penalties, and shrinking credit limits. We meet people like Andrew Spurlock and his wife Michelle, who are raising three children while watching the interest rates and fees on their credit cards skyrocket. Michelle was horrified when her interest rate jumped from seven percent to 30 percent from one day to the next, despite claiming she always paid her monthly minimum. Michelle and her husband are fighting off financial ruin as they struggle to pay off their debt. Harvard Professor Elizabeth Warren, an expert on debt and the middle class, says credit card companies are deceiving customers in order to maximize profits. "You would think that if you upheld your end of the contract that the contract would be binding. But in the case of credit cards, you would be wrong," Warren, tells NOW. This week, NOW takes a hard look at the small print in credit card offers, and at Congressional legislation aimed at regulating the industry. Are you getting the credit you deserve?

Monday, June 1, 2009

May 29 (Bloomberg) -- Ulish Hopkins, a former bus- dispatcher from Chicago, turned to a debt-settlement company last year after piling up about $30,000 in credit-card bills. Seven months later, he owed close to $40,000.

Hopkins says the company told him it could reduce his bills by about 50 percent through negotiations with lenders. He was told to stop paying creditors and to put monthly payments in an escrow account, which the firm used to cover its fees. Instead of reducing his bills, interest and late fees raised his indebtedness and damaged his credit score.

“They never told me that the money I was paying wasn’t going to my debt, it was going to them,” said Hopkins, 59, who quit work in January 2008 after a brain tumor led to surgery. He now receives $1,539 a month in disability checks. “You are better on your own.”

Credit-card delinquencies are at record highs, according to Fitch Ratings, and the U.S. unemployment rate of 8.9 percent is the highest since 1983. As more consumers fall behind on bills, settlement companies often end up adding to the debt burden rather than offering a cost-saving solution, said Gail Cunningham, a spokeswoman for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling in Silver Spring, Maryland.

“There has been significant growth in the debt-settlement industry based on the economic decline,” Cunningham said. “People are financially distressed and when that happens, the unscrupulous among us seem to come out in droves.”

Sued for Fraud

Wesley Young, legislative director of the Association of Settlement Companies, a Madison, Wisconsin-based lobbying group, said there are probably more than 500,000 customers of as many as 1,000 debt-settlement companies. The association, which includes about 30 percent of the industry, requires members to disclose payment plans and credit-score risks upfront, he said.

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has begun a national investigation of settlement companies, and has sued two for fraud and false advertising. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has also filed two lawsuits against debt-settlement companies, alleging they “engage in deceptive marketing practices” and “do little or nothing to improve consumers’ financial standings.” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sued a debt settlement company in March, saying it engaged in “deceptive and misleading acts,” according to court documents. Read entire article:

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- When the Senate passed its credit-card reform bill on Tuesday, Senator Christopher Dodd called it "a great day for consumers." But what will it mean for small business owners who've been struggling with inflated rates and unexpected fees on their credit cards?

That depends on how your small business is incorporated, and what kind of card you have.

The Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act that Obama will sign Friday outlaws several card policies that have provoked public outrage in recent months, including retroactive rate increases on existing balances for cardholders in good standing; hiking rates for new charges without at least 45 days' notice; "double-cycle billing," which allows fees to be charged for balances that were already paid off; and "universal default," which applies rate hikes if a customer is late with payments on unrelated bills.

While some of these provisions were already put in place by the Federal Reserve last December, they weren't scheduled to kick in until July 2010. Instead, the 45-day notice will now go into effect in mid-August of this year, with the rest of the changes being implemented next February.

For small businesses, however, there's a catch. Because the new law amends the Truth in Lending Act, which only governs consumer loans, it doesn't apply to corporate cards.

What this means is if you use your personal card to make business purchases, you'll be covered by the new protections. Likewise, business cards based on your personal credit - as is often the case for sole proprietors - should be covered as well.

But for limited liability corporations and other companies that use traditional corporate cards, the same old rules will continue to apply. An amendment proposed by Senators Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, to extend protections to any businesses with 50 or fewer employees was defeated in the Senate last week; instead, the final bill directs the Federal Reserve to conduct a study of credit-card use by small businesses.

May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Krupansky declared bankruptcy three and a half years ago. Now he worries the credit-card legislation Congress passed this week will make his banks, including Barclays Plc, penalize him as a riskier borrower.

“This legislation could boomerang and hurt the same people it’s designed to help during the credit crunch,” said Krupansky, 55, a freelance software developer in New York.

The “bill of rights” that U.S. President Barack Obama signed today is intended to protect cardholders from excessive fees and last-minute contract changes. It also may prompt banks to slash available credit by as much as $90 billion to avoid risk, said Robert Hammer, chief executive officer of R.K. Hammer Investment Bankers, an adviser to card companies.

That reduction could choke off a consumer-led recovery and hurt retailers struggling amid the longest recession since the 1930s, said Andrew Caplin, an economics professor at New York University. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

“The bill may stop various forms of abuse, but it will also stop some various forms of credit,” Caplin said. “If the economic recovery is going to rely on consumer spending, it will be a long wait.”

In 2007, purchase volume on all U.S. consumer and commercial credit cards equaled $2.11 trillion, up 8.4 percent from 2006, according to the Nilson Report, the Carpinteria, California-based newsletter.

Cardholders Spend More

“When people walk into stores with credit cards instead of cash, 90 percent of them spend more,” Britt Beemer, founder of America’s Research Group, said in an interview. “Apparel, which is in the dumpster already, is going to be hurt the most. Nonessential, big-ticket items like TVs and electronics could certainly be impacted a lot.”

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Will Credit Card Debt Crush American Households? The chart of American credit card debt is not pretty.However, we disagree with negative tone of many market pundits on the increasing amount of American credit card debt. In our view, increasing credit debt level is not as worrisome as long as the total household debt as % of total net-worth of US households is still small and manageable. It appears to be the case as of end of 2008:

- US Household assets as a whole: $65.7 trillion, unadjusted for inflation.

This means the total household liabilities (not just the credit card debt) as % of total net-worth of US households is still 27.5%...very reasonable still.Hence, we argue that US households in general on aggregate are still able to absorb and withstand higher debt levels. This is a surprising fact but fortunately true.Source :

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

May 19 (Bloomberg) -- A credit-card “bill of rights” that would curb fees and limit contract changes won approval from the U.S. Senate, as lawmakers pledged to restore “balance” between consumers and companies.

The Senate’s 90-5 vote sends the bill to the House of Representatives, which approved a similar measure last month. The House may give final approval as soon as tomorrow. President Barack Obama said he’d like to sign a bill into law by the May 25 Memorial Day holiday.

The Senate legislation would require lenders to apply payments to balances with the highest interest rates first. It would prohibit increasing a consumer’s rate on existing balances based on late payments to another lender, a practice known as “universal default.”

Senators said they had been flooded by complaints from constituents with clean payment histories whose rates were increased or borrowing limits were slashed.

“The statistics are just overwhelming about what’s happening to people,” said Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. “It needed to change. This bill tries to bring a sense of balance back.”

General Electric Co. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Immelt told investors at a conference in Florida today that the legislation wound up as “equal to or better than what our expectation was.” GE is the biggest private-label credit card issuer in the U.S.

Banks will be prevented under the legislation from pricing for risk, Edward Yingling, president and chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association, said in a statement.

“What has been a short-term revolving unsecured loan will now become a medium-term unsecured loan, which is significantly more risky,” Yingling said. “It is a fundamental rule of lending that an increase in risk means that less credit will be available and that the credit that is available will often have a higher interest rate.”

Most credit-card stocks fell. Bank of America dropped 48 cents to $11.25 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:15 p.m., a 4 percent decline. JPMorgan was off $1.45, or 3.9 percent, to $35.81. MasterCard Inc. lost $6.67, or 3.9 percent, to $166.73, and Visa Inc. declined $1.61, or 2.4 percent, to $64.80.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

By Hugh Son and Ari Levy May 18 (Bloomberg) -- American Express Co., the largest U.S. credit-card company by purchases, will cut about 6 percent of its workforce as cardholders squeezed by rising unemployment fail to pay debts.

American Express will take a charge of $180 million to $250 million in the second quarter, mostly tied to severance and other costs from eliminating 4,000 positions, the New York-based company said today in a statement. Additional reductions will be made in marketing and travel costs and consulting services.

The cuts, in addition to 7,000 job eliminations announced in October, may save about $2 billion in expenses this year, the company said. American Express has had to set aside more reserves for failed loans as surging U.S. unemployment makes it harder for customers to pay debt. The jobless rate reached 8.9 percent in April, a 25-year high.

“Credit is a big issue and the spending volume on the cards is a concern as well,” said Jason Arnold, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in San Francisco, who recommends selling American Express shares. “They’re taking the right steps in this environment.”

American Express rose $1.90, or 7.8 percent, to $26.13 at 4 p.m. on the New York Stock Exchange today, trimming its loss for the past year to 46 percent. The stock dropped 13 cents to $26 in extended trading after the announcement. Read entire article:

May 14 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate, working to complete legislation to curb credit-card fees and limit contract changes, refused to cap interest rates on balances at 15 percent.

The Senate may pass the so-called credit-card bill of rights measure as early as today, said Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd. Approval would send the measure to a committee to resolve differences with a House version.

“We’ve spent a lot of time over the last number of months trying to help stabilize the financial system,” said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat. “A lot of attention has been paid to banks. We haven’t spent enough time trying to help consumers.”

The Senate credit-card legislation would require lenders to apply payments to balances with the highest interest rates first. It would prohibit increasing a consumer’s rate on existing balances based on late payments to another lender, a practice known as “universal default.”

The bill would require credit-card companies to give 45 days’ notice before increasing an interest rate. It would prohibit retroactive rate increases on existing balances unless a consumer was 60 days late with a payment. Companies would have to restore the original, lower rate if a cardholder stayed current six months after a late payment. Read entire atrticle

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- MasterCard Inc., the world’s second- largest electronic payments network, will begin letting U.S. customers with Bancorp Inc. accounts send money by mobile phone later this month.

Customers will be able to write a text message, use a mobile Web browser or download an application that will enable them to transfer money to another person’s account, the Purchase, New York-based company said today in a statement.

“Consumers are carrying a lot less cash around and this service enables them to send or receive money without the hassle of exchanging cash back and forth and writing checks,” said Art Kranzley, the company’s chief emerging technology officer.

MasterCard’s profit slipped 18 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier as credit-card spending fell, it said in a statement May 1. The company is unaffected by rising credit-card defaults because its network processes transactions and doesn’t make loans to cardholders.

The mobile phone feature was created for so-called social and family payments, such as reimbursing friends for concert tickets or sending money to a child in college, Kranzley said. The program, which limits transfers to $500, will initially be offered to customers using prepaid cards from Bancorp, an online commercial bank based in Wilmington, Delaware. Kranzley said it will be extended to other banks that sign up.

The sender must confirm the initial request by entering a personal identification number. This validation, along with the same security safeguards given to customers who hold credit cards issued by banks in the MasterCard network, will protect against fraud, Kranzley said.

Social networking is becoming an increasingly popular way for banks to reach consumers amid the economic downturn.

Wells Fargo (WFC) and Bank of America (BAC) have begun to "tweet" — post messages of 140 characters or less on Twitter.com — with customers about everything from bank fees to product features. Discover Financial (DFS), American Express (AXP) and Citigroup (C) have launched Facebook or MySpace pages. Some banks even put marketing videos on YouTube.

"Social media is a whole new world, and you cannot afford to not be a part of it," says Pamela Blase, a spokeswoman for UMB Financial of Kansas City, Mo., which tweets about everything from the bank's financial stability to the industry's prospects.

Banks say they're establishing presences on social-networking sites to tap into a growing demographic and to control the conversation about their brands. Yet the economic turmoil, some say, makes it even more important to reach out to customers any way they can.

"There's a lot of worry out there," says Ed Terpening, vice president of social media at Wells Fargo, one of the first banks with a group of employees dedicated to social networking. "That means that we have to stay close to our customers."

The appeal of social networking, according to Steve Furman, Discover's director of e-commerce, is that it provides "pure, instant" communication with customers.

In general, banks and card issuers have been slower to embrace social networking than other industries have. But social networking has become popular enough that, for many institutions, it's not a question of if but when to establish a presence on these sites, says James McGovern of Corporate Insight, a financial-services research firm.

Yet as a growing number of banks become proficient in the social-networking world, the norms of customer service are being upended. Increasingly, today's online interactions between banks and consumers are peppered with shorthand, typos and even slang.

Adding to banks' challenges, social-networking sites are becoming another venue for consumers to complain — and complain is exactly what they're doing as credit card rates and fees rise even as the economy struggles and unemployment rises.

Jesse Hattabaugh, a software engineer from San Francisco, recently posted this message to banks on Twitter: "Stop making your living off my late fees! You fine me more than you loan me!"

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- Advanta Corp., the issuer of credit cards for small businesses, will halt new lending for its 1 million customers next month as the recession causes a surge in loan defaults.

Lending ceases June 10. Advanta will use as much as $1.4 billion to pay investors of its securitized credit-card loans part of the debt’s face value, the Spring House, Pennsylvania- based company said yesterday in a statement. Advanta said it’s preserving capital after charge-offs, or uncollectible debt, reached 20 percent on some cards as of March 31.

“This is a Hail Mary pass: They’re hoping they can stay alive barely until the environment changes,” said David Robertson, president of the Nilson Report, the Carpinteria, California-based industry newsletter.

Advanta has reported three consecutive quarterly losses and has seen its shares plunge from about $30 in June 2007 to $1.13 at the close of New York trading yesterday. The U.S. jobless rate reached 8.5 percent in March, a 25-year high, squeezing sales for small business owners. The economic slowdown affected Advanta’s customers across the country, Chief Financial Officer Philip Browne has said.

“We’ll be shutting down accounts for future transaction activities, but many of the customers will maintain balances and pay us off over time,” Browne said yesterday in a telephone interview. “We’ll have to service and collect on that, and that will be the first order of business for the company.”

Curtailing Business

Shutting accounts won’t accelerate payments for existing balances, Advanta said. While the company is “free to do new business in the future,” it doesn’t expect to do so until the plan is under way, according to the statement.

More than 90 percent of Advanta’s small business customers will have “adequate” access to alternative credit after the company halts lending, Browne said.

Advanta was the 11th-biggest U.S. credit-card issuer at the end of 2008 with about $5 billion in outstanding balances, and the only major lender focused on small business borrowers, Robertson said.

The company’s announcement yesterday is “a big sign that the credit-card industry has problems that are going to be around for several years,” said the Nilson Report’s Robertson.

Monday, May 11, 2009

May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Irena Cabrilo got a free lunch during her freshman year at the University of North Texas in exchange for signing up for a credit card from Bank of America Corp. Eight months later, she was carrying a $1,500 balance and struggling to pay an 18 percent interest rate.

“They made it sound so easy,” said Cabrilo, now a senior majoring in marketing and advertising. “Just sign up, you’ll get approved and have access to money. They don’t talk about interest rates and what will happen to your credit history.”

Average credit-card debt among graduating college seniors increased to more than $4,100 last year from $2,900 in 2004, according to a study by SLM Corp. About 85 percent of students have at least one credit card, according to the study, conducted every four years by Reston, Virginia-based SLM, also known as Sallie Mae, the largest lender to U.S. students.

The Senate may vote on a bill as early as May 11 that would prevent credit-card companies from targeting college students such as Cabrilo by requiring parental consent for a borrower under age 21 unless there is proof of independent income or completion of a financial literacy course. A Senate panel approved the restrictions, which also limit credit-card interest rates and fees, in March.

“Credit cards should be a leg-up for college students, not a leg-trap that snares them in unbearable debt,” said Senator Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat. “This new legislation will help protect students from unfair lending practices.”

Students Targeted

Credit-card issuers market to students because they want to inspire brand loyalty from a young age and believe parents will step in if their children default, according to Bill Hardekopf, chief executive officer of LowCards.com, a Birmingham, Alabama research firm. The lenders also expect college graduates to have higher-paying jobs, he said.

Many students need the credit-card accounts because they don’t have sufficient financial aid or enough savings to cover college costs, the Sallie Mae study said. More are turning to credit cards as the gap between financial aid packages and tuition widens, said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group in Washington.

Tuition and fees have risen 5.9 percent at four-year private institutions to $25,143 a year and 6.4 percent at public schools to $6,585 since last year, according to the New York- based College Board. Tuition, fees, room and board surpassed $50,000 a year for the first time in 2007 at George Washington University. Current annual rates at Ivy League schools, such as Harvard University in Boston, exceed $45,000.

Fewer Loans

Fewer private student loans, which often have variable interest rates, and “PLUS” loans are being originated because of stricter underwriting standards, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org, a college funding information Web site based in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania. Parents and graduate students may take PLUS loans, which require good credit and have fixed interest rates, to cover the balance of tuition.

Private education loan originations were $1.5 billion in the first quarter, down from $2.5 billion a year earlier, based on data provided by Sallie Mae.

Credit-card interest rates are often higher than private student loan rates, and funding college costs with credit cards should only be used after exhausting other loans and for necessary expenses, said Kantrowitz. “You should live like a student while you’re in school so you don’t have to live like a student after you graduate,” he said.

Recent graduates who are repaying their debts should make the minimum payment on every loan and apply any remaining money to the loan with the highest rate, Kantrowitz said.click here to read the full article

Sunday, May 10, 2009

loans and how and where to get them.Also bad credit and what to do about it.Bad credit personal loans, mortgage loans, refinance loans, debt consolidation loans, credit repair, credit bureaus and credit reports, and credit cards like VISAPrepaid credit cards are offering people with low incomes or poor credit ratings a chance to take advantage of a credit card. But what advantages and disadvantages do prepaid credit cards have?

A relatively new form of credit card you so-called pre paid credit card. This differs from other types of credit card because you only have funds available to it on the corresponding clearing account. You need a credit card that is similar to a prepaid phone card first with credit “charge”, then this means the credit card that will be. Basically, the prepaid credit card offers some advantages but also disadvantages for the users and cardholders. The biggest advantage of prepaid credit card is certainly that now customers can use credit cards, which are otherwise due to adverse credit no card in this way would receive. As one means of prepaid credit cards only through any existing credit and no credit claims, can even the holder of a current account balances, this type of credit card use. Since especially abroad and in the Internet is often the only credit card payment option is to have these “new” card of course great advantages of the prepaid credit card.

A second benefit to the cardholder is that it is an overview of the decisions made therein. While using a traditional credit card even once in the sum makes more orders than we had intended, does this by pre-paid credit cards from the outset to avoid, in which only the amount of money in the account, you also have a maximum wants. Since an “overdraft” in the sense of the credit card is not possible, which also provides the customer a security in addition if the prepaid credit card is stolen should turn the advantage to mention that the maximum in the account or located on the card balance has to be.Besides the many advantages there are also a major drawback of the prepaid credit card. While it is certainly positive for some customers is that you use the card only on credit can not see that a few other customers as a big disadvantage to. One is at the disposal of assets, and may take the prepaid credit card is not in the sense of spontaneous, or even for emergency use as you would with a conventional credit card with a certain amount limit is used. For unforeseen orders, the prepaid card is less likely and thus is less flexible than other credit

Those concerned with purchasing online using their credit card, will be increasingly relieved on the so-called prepaid credit cards coming from different financial institutions. But what is behind such an offer?

Prepaid credit cards are actually the same idea basically, almost every owner of a phone should know: The credit card will be charged before use with a certain amount of money charged, then the payments will be processed accordingly. The principle is strongly reminiscent of the method with traditional rechargeable debit cards, however, the advantage of prepaid credit cards in the much wider acceptance. Almost in every place where ordinary credit cards are accepted, you have the possibility to use a prepaid credit card.

Another big advantage compared to ordinary credit cards is the lack Schufa query before issuing the card. Since under the prepaid principle usually no payments can be made to the board on the amount may go, is the lack of polling also perfectly understandable. For many customers, which, because of problems Schufa the issue of a normal credit card is denied, provided by the prepaid card is a suitable alternative to the use of cashless payment. Even as the first credit card in adolescence is the prepaid card as an alternative to cash is certainly recommended.

The comparison of different providers of prepaid cards is very rewarding, since depending on the bank also offered additional benefits. Credit interest rates, an unlimited Aufladebetrag or even negotiating a credit line (if still missing Schufa query) are possible depending on the institution. The annual fee for a prepaid credit card is usually 30 to 50 euros.

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